Louisiana Voice

They’re called snakes, those bills that tend to fly under the radar and which sail through the legislative process to passage with hardly (often times nary) a voice raised in protest.

They tend to lurk in the shadows, appearing harmless until they metaphorically bite you when you least expect it.

A prime example is the last-minute amendment to an otherwise innocuous bill back in 2014 that would’ve given then-State Police Superintendent Mike Edmonson a healthy boost in his retirement in violation of provisions of a program he’d entered into earlier that would’ve frozen his pension at a certain level. That bill passed an unsuspecting legislature (unsuspecting to all, that is, but its author, then-Sen. Neil Riser and Edmonson).

State Sen. Dan Claitor prevailed in a lawsuit to stop the illegal windfall or Edmonson might be drawing an additional $100,000 per year in retirement.

Well, there’s another that just passed unanimously (save for a sprinkling of non-voting absentees) in both the House and Senate that at first glance would bring broadband internet to rural areas of the state.

SB 406 was originally authored by Sen. Beth Mizell (R-Franklinton) but the bill appeared so well-intentioned that 30 other senators and 79 representatives joined in as co-sponsors in a rare show of bipartisan support.

After all, what could be more worthy of support than bringing broadband internet to parts of the state that can’t get it right now? [Well, unless you’re Bobby Jindal, who famously spurned some $80.6 million in federal funding for just that purpose.]

The bill would appear to endorse efforts by Claiborne Electric which serves all or parts of the parishes of Claiborne, Bienville, Union, Lincoln, Webster and Ouachita.

Among the state’s seven electric cooperatives which serve about a million customers in 50 of the state’s 64 parishes, Claiborne Electric has taken the lead in pushing for rural broadband service.

Someone once said a camel (or a giraffe, depending upon which version you read) is an animal invented by a committee.

And as is the norm, when a committee convenes, an original bill becomes unrecognizable and that’s exactly what happened with SB 406.

Of course, corporations like AT&T, CenturyLink, and Cox had more than a little to do with that, with the help of a little-known political operative very likely funded by Koch Industries and Americans for Prosperity (AFP).

The Pelican Institute for Public Policy is a typical low-profile political lobbying outfit that is suitably separated from Koch and AFP as to never let Koch’s name surface but you can be fairly certain they’re lurking in the background, pulling all the appropriate strings.

In fact, on the Pelican Institute’s web page, there is an announcement of a new “team member,” one ERIC PETERSON, who joined Pelican Institute as director of policy. The announcement said that prior to joining Pelican Institute, he worked for a variety of organizations, “including Americans for Prosperity…”

Peterson is listed as the sole lobbyist for the Pelican Institute at 400 Poydras Street in New Orleans while four people—Rodney Braxton, Kevin Cunningham, Elizabeth Mangham and Ethan Melancon—are listed as lobbyists for the Pelican Institute for Public Policy, 643 Magazine Street, New Orleans. The same four are also listed as lobbyists for Southern Strategy Group and if one calls the phone number listed for Pelican Institute for Public Policy, Southern Strategy Group answers the call.

Yet the two—the Pelican Institute and the Pelican Institute for Public Policy—share the same Internet page and the same logo on their common web page.

Koch and AFP, of course, are the main financial backers of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which writes legislation introduced by state legislators.

ALEC has a long history of opposing any encroachment of areas served by member Internet Service Providers, i.e. AT&T, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, Charter Communications, DirecTV, Comcast, Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association, Time Warner, T-Mobile and Verizon. (Cox, AT&T and Verizon were among companies that discontinued their memberships in ALEC since 2012 but their opposition to competition is still pushed by ALEC on behalf of the other communications members.)

“We were actively involved with SB 406,” said Morgan Wampold, communications director for Pelican Institute which he explained was interchangeable with Pelican Institute for Public Policy. All five of the lobbyists listed above work for the same lobbying firm, he explained.

Wampold denied any knowledge of funding for his organization by Koch. “We are a 501©(3) non-profit, he said and we don’t have to divulge the names or our donors, but I’m not aware of any connection to Koch, although we do share political philosophies.”

Perhaps that is why a key paragraph in Mizell’s bill was amended to take on a totally different meaning that all but killed any rational reason for Claiborne Electric to want to pursue its objective of bringing broadband to its customers.

In the ORIGINAL bill, the wording, “An electric cooperative may grant permission to an affiliate or other broadband operator to use the electric delivery system of the electric cooperative to provide broadband services” was AMENDED to read:

“In an unserved area only, an electric cooperative may allow a broadband affiliate or other broadband operator to own, lease, construct, maintain, or operate a broadband system and provide services to the public utilizing the broadband system on the electric cooperative’s electric delivery system or other parts of its electric delivery system.” (emphasis mine)

It’s those five words “In and unserved area only” that effectively kills any chance for rural residents in Louisiana to enjoy broadband internet service.

It was on the Senate floor that a flurry of amendments were offered that allowed this camel to begin to take shape.

It was the amended version that sailed through the HOUSE on a vote of 100-0 with five members not voting, and which was passed by the SENATE by a unanimous vote of 34-0 with five not voting.

“We were very supportive of the bill,” Wampold said, although he said he was not aware who was involved in the amendments that gutted the intent of the bill.

The bill is now awaiting only the governor’s signature before becoming an official act and Claiborne CEO Mark Brown said efforts are being made to make Gov. John Bel Edwards aware of the harm those five words do to the prospects of broadband internet availability in rural Louisiana.

“The bill, in its current language, prohibits the provision of broadband because it restricts us to offering broadband only to those who do not have service,” Brown said. “Only the most sparsely-populated areas of the state—or unserved areas—would be eligible to receive broadband.”

He said if the cooperatives cannot offer broadband to all of its customers, then it would make the entire concept cost-prohibitive. As amended, it limits cooperatives to offering broadband only to areas too remote to receive the service already. “If we can’t offer it everywhere, we can’t afford to bring the service to the sparsely-populated areas,” he said.

He said a bill that was intended to make cooperatives competitive did just the opposite. “It’s the most anti-competitive bill I’ve ever seen,” he said. “Legislation should be about creating fair and open markets. This closes the market off to us. Our only hope now is to get the governor to veto the bill.”

And that, folks is a classic example of a legislative snake.

“And you know when you say ‘per capita,’ there’s many per capitas, it’s like, per capita relative to what? But you can look at just about any category and we’re really at the top, meaning positive, on a per capita basis too.”

—Wharton School of Business alumnus Donald Trump in his best display of “stable jenius.”

“General James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis, who is being considered for Secretary of Defense, was very impressive yesterday. A true General’s General! All I can say is he is the real deal. The real deal,”

—Donald Trump, on Gen. James Mattis, Nov. 20, 2016.

“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.” 

Gen. James Mattis, in an essay critical of Trump on Wednesday, May 3, in The Atlantic.

“Probably the only thing Barack Obama & I have in common is that we both had the honor of firing Jim Mattis, the world’s most overrated General. I asked for his letter of resignation, & felt great about it. His primary strength was not military, but rather personal public relations. I gave him a new life, things to do, and battles to win, but he seldom ‘brought home the bacon.’ I didn’t like his ‘leadership’ style or much else about him, and many others agree. Glad he is gone!” 

—Trump, Wednesday, on Mattis. [The only thing Trump left out is “I barely knew him if I ever met him at all.”]

“I think President Obama should’ve kept his mouth shut. I think it’s a little bit classless, frankly, to critique an administration that comes after you.”

—Moscow Mitch McConnell, on President Barack Obama’s recent criticism of Trump.

“I’m not going to critique other people’s performances.”

—Moscow Mitch, when asked about Trump’s tear-gassing (and it was tear-producing chemicals, thus making it tear gas, no matter what the administration says) protesters so that he could walk across Lafayette Square and hold up a Bible for a photo-op.

“The imagery of a head of state in a call with other governing officials saying, ‘Dominate the streets, dominate the battle space’ — these are iconic images that will define America for some time. It makes it much more difficult for us to distinguish ourselves from other countries we are trying to contest or influence.”

—Brett McGurk, former U.S. envoy to the Middle East, on Donald Trump’s conference call to governors in which he berated the state officials for being “weak.”

“It reminded me of what I reported on for years in the third world. Saddam. Bashar. Qaddafi. They all did this.”

—Marc Polymeropoulos, who formerly ran CIA operations in Europe and Asia, commenting on the teargassing of protesters on Monday so Trump could stroll across the street and hold up a Bible.

“I’ve seen this kind of violence. This is what autocrats do. This is what happens in countries before a collapse. It really does unnerve me.”

—Gail Helt, a former CIA analyst, in her criticism of Monday’s events.

In some ways, State Sen. Karen Carter Peterson reminds one of Donald Trump.

Yeah, that’s a pretty wide canyon to bridge, but consider that while Trump has been possibly the most controversial pissypants president in US history, she has been an undisputed complete disaster as chair of the Louisiana Democratic Party.

And we know all too well how petty and vengeful Trump can be. We have, after all, witnessed how he can ruin a career over a perceived slight.

And Karen Carter Peterson (D-New Orleans) has proven herself every bit as unforgiving

And boy, did she prove that on Monday.

In March of last year, Peterson was issued a citation by State Police after being removed from L’auberge Casino in Baton Rouge.

Why was she removed?

Well, because two years prior to that, she had volunteered to participate in the Louisiana “self-exclusion from casino gambling” program after decided that she had a gambling problem. She completed a waiver which excluded her from all casino gambling establishments. That waiver said that should a participant be caught gambling all winnings would be remitted to the state and the participant was subject to arrest or other legal recourse. See that story HERE.

So, when she was caught and issued a summons by State Police, she apparently took it personally and from that point on, State Gaming Board Chairman Ronnie Jones had a target on his back.

And Walt Leger, III, chairman of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, was also a marked man because he got caught up in the fight between New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell and Stephen Perry, head of the New Orleans tourism marketing organization, New Orleans & Co.

LaToya and Peterson are big pals and apparently, the mayor passed on the word to Peterson that Leger was personal non-grata when he came up for Senate confirmation.

Of some 700 appointees considered for confirmation by the Senate, 11 were rejected. Of those 11, six were shot down by Peterson who took advantage of an obscure rule that allows an individual senator to block a nomination if the nominee is from the senator’s district.

Hello Ronnie Jones and Walt Leger. Both men came up for nomination on Monday and Sen. Trump Peterson finally got her opportunity to extract her pound of flesh by thumbing her nose at Jones, a man with 40-plus years with the Louisiana State Police and who was on the verge of overseeing the reopening of Louisiana’s casinos after the coronavirus lockdown. And Leger went down in flames because of the bond between Peterson and Cantrell. Ask any number of casualties from the Trump administration about how those back-room alliances shake out.

Peterson, like Trump, seems to think that laws were enacted for others and not for her and woe be unto those who do their jobs in enforcing those laws.

[See Tyler Bridges’ story in the Baton Rouge Advocate HERE and read Gov. John Bel Edwards’s statement on the Senate’s action HERE.]

It’s not the first time Peterson has acted out of pure spite.

One of her first acts as the new Democratic State Chairperson in 2012 was to nullify all parish executive committee appointments made during her predecessor Buddy Leach’s term in much the same fashion that Trump has attempted to undo everything his predecessor did.

Once the Democratic Executive Committee was stacked with Peterson appointees, the committee awarded her an annual stipend of $36,000, plus expenses. This was done without the approval of the Democratic State Central Committee, most of whom were unaware of the stipend. [Wonder if some her mileage expense payments correspond to travel for which she is paid by the Senate?]

Peterson’s sister, Eileen Carter of Houma, was paid $13,000 during October and November 2015 for “organizational/grassroots consultation,” according to figures provided by the Louisiana Ethics Commission. That’s a per-annum rate of $78,000.

And there’s this from a Nov. 7, 2017 LouisianaVoice STORY:

“…[T]he biggest concern to several Democratic Parish Executive Committee (DPEC) members is the lack of membership on no fewer than 29 parish executive committees, a condition critics attribute to Peterson’s lack of timely appointments.”

“There are 29 parishes which have five or fewer members on their committee,’ one DPEC member said. “There should be at least 15 members of each parish executive committee. That’s nearly half the state that has non-existent or non-functioning DPECs. Livingston Parish has only seven of 15 seats filled. One member of the Livingston DPEC has been working since February to get the seats filled but that still hasn’t been done even though names have been submitted.”

And nearly two years into Peterson’s second term as state chairperson, there are 33 DSCC vacancies. “If she fills positions at all, it’s usually with her minions,” one DSCC member said.

Parishes with one or more vacancies in DSCC representation include Caddo, Bossier, DeSoto, Sabine, Lincoln, Union, Ouachita, Iberville, Pointe Coupee, West Baton Rouge, West Feliciana, Caldwell, Catahoula, Franklin, LaSalle, Tensas, Concordia, East Carroll, Madison, Tensas, Rapides, Lafayette, Vermilion, Calcasieu, Acadia, Iberia, St. Martin, East Baton Rouge, Livingston, Tangipahoa, Washington, St. Tammany, and Jefferson.

“Karen Carter Peterson is an ambitious politician of questionable loyalties who has used her chairmanship of DSCC to build a fiefdom and to launch a national career, all at the expense of the organization she was elected to build and serve,” a DSCC member said.

But the real lesson here is don’t piss off Karen Carter Peterson, even if she does violate her own voluntary waiver. She doesn’t forget and she’s not above using her political clout to settle a pissypants personal grudge.

Just like Donald Trump.